playing on the edge: facilitating the emergence of a local digital grassroots

Playing on the Edge:Facilitating the Emergence of Local Digital Grassroots

Dr Axel Bruns

Dr Sal Humphreys

Creative Industries Faculty

Creative Industries mapping

The “missing middle” in content creation policy - the role of independent SME commercial production sector. Leadbeater and Oakley (1999)

The “missing grassroots” – the need to map the contributions of DIY amateur content creation to the knowledge economy

Importance of local content

Local culture in a globalised medium

Communities of interest and local geographic communities

The AUS-US Free Trade Agreement

Who makes local content in new media environments?

Commercial

Amateur

Pathways between the two?

The edgeX project

Project partners

Queensland University of Technology

University of Queensland

Ipswich City Council

Australian Research Council

Research strategies and goals

Mapping current local amateur content creation

Developing website

Community engagement – training sessions – enabling participation

Tracking the uploading and use of content

Monitoring the use of CC licences

Research strategies and goals

Observing community management strategies

Can integrating this kind of new media technology into people’s communication ecologies strengthen their sense of local identity?

Website design

Mapping interface – reinforcing the sense of local geography and community

Upload video, photos, podcasts, text, etc

Exhibition/competition space

Commenting and tagging

Website design

Creative Commons licensing available (plus training in CC use)

Individual, group and public spaces

Community engagement

Working with ICC and with a variety of local community groups

Focus on existing communities of interest within the geographical area

Run training sessions, provide support, follow-up work

Achieve a critical mass for sustainability

Ethnographic Action Research

Taken from the Ethnographic Action Research handbook by Jo Tacchi, Don Slater and Greg Hearn, UNESCO 2003

Ethnographic Action Research

Maintain a reflective engagement with community members and adapt project to meet their needs

Attending group meetings, P/O, interviews and focus groups, consultation, mapping ecologies